This invention relates in general to the field of communications devices and, more particularly, to the communication used by such devices.
As is known, communications devices such as computers or facsimile machines require modems to send and receive files of data over the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). To establish a communication link between two computers, the modem of the initiating computer must xe2x80x9chandshakexe2x80x9d with the modem of the remote computer. Handshaking is the process by which two modems connect and exchange information related to modem capabilities including but not limited to desired data rate, type of error correction, rate of compression, etc.
A first modem initiates a connection and sends information about how it wants to communicate with a second modem. The second modem responds by sending information about how it wants to communicate with the first modem. The two modems send messages back and forth until a common mode of operation (e.g., speed, error correction, and compression) is agreed upon. Also, during this process, parity, checksums, and decompression formulas are checked. If any of the formulas are incorrectly implemented, then the receiving modem will ask that the data be resent. Only when all this information has been exchanged will the handshaking process be complete.
Further, if the telephone line is prone to random signal disturbances (e.g. noise), then the disturbances may disrupt the messages and may corrupt the information being exchanged. In metal analog telephone lines, noise is a major problem that often requires the modems to resend many messages. Even if the line is not prone to signal disturbances, the connection may be dropped many times before a file is ultimately transferred. Further, since many items need to be agreed upon, the whole process may take a very long time. In analog lines, this process may take as long as thirty seconds to complete.
During the xe2x80x9chandshakingxe2x80x9d process, modems emit a series of audio tones to indicate the progression of the session. For example, a user may hear dialing, ringing, high tones and dips, static, and then silence during the handshake. The series of audio tones indicate the status of the connection. However, the audio tones are difficult to interpret, as they are not translated in a manner that is easily understood to the average user. A user understands that silence normally means that no exchange of information is taking place and a high pitched audio tone means an exchange of information. Beyond these two extremes, the average user can not understand the handshaking process. In addition, more often than not, the user does not care about the meaning of these audio tones and often finds them to be annoying. Further, if this process takes a long time, the average user may become frustrated and irritated at having to wait so long.
Thus, while the existing method of providing informative communication is functional, it can result in delay and user frustration and annoyance. Accordingly, a need exists for a better method of providing informative communication.
In one embodiment of the present invention, a system and method is provided for providing informative communication while a connection is being established between two communications devices. The method includes suppressing at least some of the audio tones that are sent between the modems to establish the connection and substituting information unrelated to at least some of the audio tones to a user of the communications device while the connection is being established. The information includes advertisements, music, movie clips, news headlines, sports scores, stock quotes, weather, time of day, calendar reminders, horoscopes, messages, inspirational sayings and the like. Such information is more informative and/or less annoying to the user than the traditional audio tones utilized by the modems and therefore the audio tones are suppressed in an embodiment of the current invention. The information may be static or dynamically updated so that a user is presented with new information upon each connection.
In one exemplary embodiment, the system provides for suppressing at least some audio tones in computers and facsimile machines that use modems and provides for static and/or dynamic information to be presented to a user of the computer or facsimile machine.
Other systems, methods, features and advantages of the invention will be or will become apparent to one with skill in the art upon examination of the following figures and detailed description. It is intended that all such additional systems, methods, features and advantages be included within this description, be within the scope of the invention, and be protected by the accompanying claims.